Rebranding Your Business

Rebranding can help you refocus and retarget your audience- as long as you do it right.

Rebranding can be just the ticket for a company looking to reach a new target audience, stand out from competitors, increase market shares or refocus your brand purpose. Adapting your company’s image can have a substantial impact. For the most successful impact, rebranding should take place under the right circumstances.

The new logo should communicate a change in the company’s purpose, core values or services. Consider how your company’s policies and mission statement are changing and implement those values into your logo design and marketing strategies.

While the new logo functions as the cornerstone of an updated branding, rebranding efforts extend beyond that. Simply updating your logo won’t influence your overall identity. The change should be universal, from your positioning to all of your print and digital media.

You’ll need to do your homework to come up with a new and improved strategy to guide the rebranding. This is where a professional comes in. Choose your team wisely. Wether you’re putting together a team internally, hiring a brand consultant or agency, you’ll need to invest a considerable amount of time in the planning stages, and consider your brand’s infrastructure as a whole. Do your research, isolate the problem and come up with a strategy and. Start with the logo and new message, then work your way through existing collateral. Leave no stone unbranded.

Consider unique challenges

When embarking on a rebranding endeavor, it’s crucial to identity the surrounding challenges and goals. Isolate what’s working, what’s not and what you need to achieve.

Road Warrior Creative recently rebranded The Residences at Sherburne Commons (R.S.C.). Due to the economic downturn of the mid-2000’s, and the subsequent slow recovery, R.S.C. knew that it was time to reinvent themselves. Having already moved from being a for-profit corporation to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit model, their next step was to significantly update their online presence in order to help attract new residents and improve their occupancy rate.

We wanted R.S.C. to distance themselves from their old identity and business model. A new logo was the perfect fit. We moved away from their previous hibiscus flower graphic and teals/light blue color scheme that said “Florida” more than “Nantucket.” Additionally, we changed the text from an old fashioned script that gave the feel of a nursing home to a more classic serif font which would appeal more to their targeted active adult market.

Upon completion, The Residences at Sherburne Commons received an updated logo that perfectly conveyed their new brand identity – that of an upscale senior living community catering to active adults in a very specific place: Nantucket. With a totally revitalized online presence, R.S.C. is poised to achieve the results they need in the coming years.

Timing is everything

Looking at Apple’s rebrand in 1998, we see how profitable rebranding can be on a global scale, especially when paired with a well-timed product launch. After operating at a loss, with competitor Microsoft dominating the market, Steve Jobs rejoined the board of directors. Later that year, Apple released the iMac along with a sleek new logo to boot. This method of pairing new products and refreshed branding kept Apple at the forefront of the tech industry and propelled the cost of their stock shares from 77 cents in 1997 to more than $100 a share, today. Always consider timing when mapping out your rebrand. If you align the relaunch with a product release or event you can maximize the momentum and cross-promote. Can you say win-win?

Rebranding can seem like a risk when you consider the amount of time and money necessary to invest. However, the rewards can be worth the risk if you’re willing to do your research and carry out the rebranding to every corner of your company. Do it right, and it will be powerful.